Intellectual Property
Introduction Intellectual Property is a term coined to classify different artistic and intellectual creations and allows the law to be applied to these creations. This allows the owners to extend certain rights to intangible creations like music as well as tangible art and literary work. It also applied to phrases, symbols, and designs. Intellectual property is an umbrella term that covers copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, and trade secrets.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property History Intellectual Property was not coined as a modern term until 1888, when the Swiss Federal Office for Intellectual Property was founded in Berne. This merged into the United International Bureax for the Protection of Intellectual Property in 1893, but was relocated to Geneva in 1960. In 1967 it was succeeded by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which was an agency of the United Nations created by international treaty. Despite all of this, the term was not widely used in the United States until the passing of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980, which classified intellectual creations that were a result of government funding as property of the creator, not the government.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh-Dole_Act However, the idea of intellectual property can be traced further back into history. Jewish law has several principles that have similar effects to modern laws, but they never use the term "Intellectual Property," nor do they classify intellectual creations as property. This is done through the Geneivat da'at ("Mind Theft") principle, which has been interpreted by some to prohibit the false misinterpretation or theft of ideas.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneivat_da'at Criticisms Some criticism cites that because the intellectual property rights are so strict, poor nations can't get access to the flow of innovations.Many developing countries benefited from the spread of technologies like the internet, mobile phone, vaccines, and high-yielding grainshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property. Those critics argue that many patent laws may go too far in protecting the innovation's producers at the expense of those who use them. The Commitment to Development Index measures donor government policies, then ranks them based on their "friendliness" of intellectual property rights. Some libertarian critics have argued that these laws create artificial scarcity and infringes on the right to own tangible property. Stephan Kinsella argues this point with the following scenario: : "Imagine the time when men lived in caves. One bright guy--let's call him Galt-Magnon-- decides to build a log cabin on an open field, near his crops. To be sure, this is a good idea, and others notice it. They naturally imitate Galt-Magnon, and they start building their own cabins. But the first man to invent a house, according to IP advocates, would have a right to prevent others from building houses on their own land, with their own logs, or to charge them a fee if they do build houses. It is plain that the innovator in these examples becomes a partial owner of tangible property (e.g., land and logs) of others, due not to the first occupation and use of that property (for it is already owned), but due to his coming up with an idea. Clearly, this rule flies in the face of the first-user homesteading rule, arbitrarily and groundlessly overriding the very homesteading rule that is at the foundation of all property rights.http://mises.org/books/against.pdf" Notes References "Bayh-€“Dole Act." Wikipedia. 6 July 2006. Web. 26 Sept. 2010. "Geneivat Da'at." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 17 Feb. 2008. Web. 26 Sept. 2010. Hjalmeida. Copyright Businessman. Photograph. Royalty Free Stock Photos. Dreamstime. Web. 22 Sept. 2010. "Intellectual Property." The Free Encyclopedia. 13 Mar. 2003. Web. 26 Sept. 2010. Kinsella, N. Stephan. Against Intellectual Property. Journal of Libertarian Studies, 2001. PDF.